VIJAYAWADA: Newly-elected mayor of Vijayawada Koneru Sridhar has said that he will strive to improve the basic amenities in the city and correct the mistakes that were made during the erstwhile Congress party’s rule.
The mayor and the deputy mayor interacted with the media after the elections at the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation and expressed their gratitude to party president and chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu for selecting them for the posts.
“I shall rope in the support of all party leaders including minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao, MLAs Bonda Umamaheswara Rao and Gadde Ramamohan Rao and see that all the promises made in the party manifesto are fulfilled,” Sridhar said and assured that he would see that Vijayawada city would be placed in the list of the developed cities in the country.
Vijayawada(Central) MLA Bonda Umamaheswara Rao said that being an experienced corporator Koneru Sridhar will launch Vijayawada, which is likely to become the capital of Andhra Pradesh, on the path of development. He also added that they would see that all the grants from both the state government and the Centre would be released to VMC.
Vijayawada (East) MLA Gadde Ramamohana Rao said that TDP would strive to see that Vijayawada would outshine Hyderabad in terms of development. He, however, blamed the parties that ruled the civic body earlier for pushing it into debts. Earlier, Koneru Sridhar was unanimously elected 11th mayor of Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) and Gogula Venkataramana Rao, the deputy mayor. Krishna District Collector and VMC special officer M Raghunandana Rao who had convened the Municipal Corporation council meeting with the newly elected members, announced Koneru Sridhar as mayor as only one B form was submitted in the election. Later District collector announced that TDP corporator Gogula Venkataramana Rao had been elected as the deputy mayor.
West MLA (YSRCP) Jaleel Khan, MLC (Congress) Ilapuram Venkaiah also attended the session.
SIDELIGHTS OF MAYORAL POLLS
The city police took possession of the Corporation premises amid high security which brought back the memories of chief minister’ swearing-in ceremony, and allowed the electronic media inside by 9 am.
Municipal commissioner Hari Kiran expressed his displeasure over the media representatives who gathered there for coverage.
Special officer and district collector M Ragunandana Rao reached the premises by 11.15 am.
TDP’s Veeranki Dange Kumar occupied his seat by 10.25 am in the meeting hall which was filled with TDP corporators on the one side and YSR Congress corporators on the other.
Single members from CPM and BJP also came in representing their party.
Special officer made corporator of Division No. 45 A Ravi Kumar to take oath for a second time.
A podium was erected by the Information Department behind the meeting hall where the mayor, deputy mayor and corporators interacted with the media after the elections.